


The Article

by SlightlyFlammable



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 13:29:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16787869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlightlyFlammable/pseuds/SlightlyFlammable
Summary: Harry Potter has been dating Draco Malfoy for a few months now and the wizarding world is still in an uproar about it. Time for Rita to get the real scoop about how Harry was raised.





	The Article

**Author's Note:**

> Nothing is proof read. I wrote this after thinking about it nonstop while in the shower. Sorry if there are any grammar/spelling mistakes. Written on my phone at 11:30pm
> 
> I own none of these characters or the baseline for this story.

It’s a few months after Draco starts dating Harry and everyone is still outraged at the chosen one dating the former death eater. His friends made their peace with the Slytherins of their year but are also still wary. 

In comes Rita skeeter. She wants to expose the golden boy and nows her chance; since a lot of people are angry with him about his romantic choices, she heads to the Dursley’s to do some digging. They’re proud people and see absolutely nothing wrong with what they did and go into extreme detail about how they treated Harry for years. They caught onto Rita’s vibe of wanting to expose Harry and thought they were all on the same page. Rita just wanted to have a scoop about him being a brat maybe or throwing a tantrum as a child. That visit actually breaks Rita. She writes one last article. Vague but not vague enough to hide the main, nasty details about Harry’s childhood. It’s meant as a humbling piece to alert the wizarding world that even she thinks he’s taken enough of everyone’s shit. That’s the last thing she writes.

Sadly, her reputation proceeds her and everyone thinks it’s highly imagined, who would ever treat the boy who lived that way? Or any child in that way. Except Draco has started sleeping over. Draco who still keeps tabs on Harry even though they’re boyfriends now. He has seen tiny moments that aren’t run over from the war. Moments when Harry has a breakdown after dropping the plate with their pancakes on it...flinching when Draco goes to ask what’s wrong and if he’s alright. Some incidents are bigger and some minuscule but it’s enough to think maybe Rita’s piece wasn’t all false. Harry hasn’t read it, he’s stopped reading the press about him years ago. Trusting his friends to tell him anything worrying or important. But with this news everyone either brushes it off or those that suspect don’t dare ask. 

A week later and another incident that didn’t make sense (why was Harry’s basement cupboard boarded up) he floos to Ron and Hermione’s. He doesn’t care that they’re not fans of him but he’s also new to the whole dating Harry thing and doesn’t want to fuck it up but is too concerned to pass it by. They finally realise how much Draco genuinely cares about Harry, barging in and demanding to know if they knew, how have they not helped him?! They noticed things over the years but weren’t sure if it was still affecting Harry and/or if it was all from the war. This is the first time they genuinely invite Draco in. 

Harry, confused and looking for his boyfriend goes to his best friends to ask if they knew where he went and find them all huddled around the article discussing how to ask harry about it without hurting him. He’s confused and hurt that something embarrassing must’ve happened and they’re talking about him. He doesn’t want them to cover for him any longer. Grabbing the newspaper before they even realise he’s there....he crumples to the ground, going deathly pale as his eyes scan over the parchment. Disbelieving how anyone found out, scared that his boyfriend who he’s pretty sure he loves will finally see the coward he is and leave him. Scared of the pity he’ll see in his best friends eyes that he wasn’t strong enough. 

After running off Draco finds him at the park near the Dursley’s house. Took forever for him to find the park but he knew he needed to find him and let him know how much he is loved. He’ll never forget the terrified look on his beautiful boyfriends face. That terrified look that quickly turned to disgust at himself before tears filled and he fled the house. 

They discuss it. Draco constantly touching, caressing, and kissing Harry as he finally pours out all his demons. Everything he has been too scared to tell anyone for fear of pity, ridicule, and abandonment. It takes everything in Draco not to burn the Dursley’s house down and the whole block while he’s at it. Harry, still with his heart of gold, doesn’t want anymore harm to be done to anyone. He has long since said goodbye to that life, he just wants the separation.

They work on it. It’s hard work and multiple times Harry has had to stop Draco from apps rating to their house to cause destruction when Harry cries after he accidentally breaks another dish, or can’t stop saying sorry when he forgets to clean something Draco asked him to earlier. But he does heal. With Draco, Ron hermione and the rest of his chosen family by his side. He opens two foundations, one in the wizarding world and one in the muggle. Help for abused children, builds safe spaces for them to live and grow so they have a choice of leaving and have a home to find. He never wants any child to feel as hopeless and worthless as he was made to feel. 

And if sometime down the road he and Draco adopt an orphaned child who ran from an abusive aunt then that’s their own happy ending.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts? Made me sad but I like happy endings so I tried. I also don’t write so this was more of a way just to get this idea out of my head and then it morphed into more story writing. Sorry!


End file.
